Following a long-running stint on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the dancers from the production Jubilee! took a final perfectly timed kick in 2016. The production, known for its ornate costumes designed by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to dwindling audience numbers and unimpressed critics who labeled it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Today, roughly eight years later, the showgirl, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is making a comeback.
The King of Sequins
Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made theatrical stage sparkle his signature style, outfitting everyone from screen legends to Madonna. Earlier this month, a “barely-there” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, well over its estimated price, while a silver and gold beaded bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more enticing for the new generation of stars who is looking for something other than what they were accustomed to”, he told a media outlet. “Today's artists are striving for a show-stopping, more dramatic, breathtaking, grand statement.”
The Mainstream Comeback
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the epicenter of mainstream fashion in 2025 largely due to a chart-topping superstar. Earlier this year, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The crystal-covered bra and thong, feathered armbands and glittering headpiece were ideal for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer isn't alone. This year, glamorous nods have been embraced by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they danced across concert platforms in sparkles, revealing designs and plumes, illuminated against theatrical sets. Lipa’s stylist a fashion expert told Vogue he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 50s, Lipa’s dancers wafted giant feathered fans.
Drawing from the Past
These artists and other hitmakers also draw on classic entertainment forms, including burlesque and ensemble references. The outcome are vastly different from the late-century Britney Spears era of revealing tops and utilitarian trousers, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that preceded this trend.
But not everyone are convinced with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “employed as an catch-all phrase including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even Taylor Swift.”
The Highly Sought-After Vintage Style
For gen Z and modern stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actor wore a translucent beaded dress created by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, another pop star paid an private amount to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a collection of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among fashion collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic inspire nostalgia for a past glamour,” says an archivist, head of special collections at the an academic institution, who researches the history of showgirls. “Now it is viewed as a sort of ‘toned-down’ allure because it has been modified. It has got all the sophistication, the crystals and the sparkle but without the bare skin.”
More Than Just Fashion: An Icon of Las Vegas
She says showgirls are key to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was accompanied by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas no longer has any traditional showgirl productions, Chung says they are still employed as an emblem of the city, showing up at gatherings and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a remaining icon of Vegas spectacle,” the expert says.
The Appeal of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl persona is part of the allure. This idea Taylor Swift references in a latest documentary series that shows the off-camera action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, training and countless shows across multiple nations, each going on for 3.5 hours.
Hardy explains her own stage routines as “comparable to running a marathon in stilettos every night”. Her feathered headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the stairs to the performance area from the green rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to leave early for my cue so I could recover before I went on stage. You’re perspiring the whole time but creating this fantasy that it’s simple and gorgeous and dreamlike.”
Maybe this is where the fascination of the showgirl really resides. In the chaos of 2025 there is a desire for fantasy. Who better to emulate than showgirls, who have always represented make-believe, idealism and a realm where nobody misses a mark.
